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Journal of Virology, February 2003, p. 2233-2242, Vol. 77, No. 3
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.3.2233-2242.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Amplification of a Complete Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Genome from Fecal RNA of a Wild Chimpanzee
Mario L. Santiago,1 Frederic Bibollet-Ruche,1 Elizabeth Bailes,2 Shadrack Kamenya,3 Martin N. Muller,4 Magdalena Lukasik,3 Anne E. Pusey,5 D. Anthony Collins,3 Richard W. Wrangham,4 Jane Goodall,6 George M. Shaw,1,7 Paul M. Sharp,2 and Beatrice H. Hahn1*
Departments of Medicine and Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham,1
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Birmingham, Alabama 35294,7
Institute of Genetics, University of Nottingham, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham NH7 2UH, United Kingdom,2
Gombe Stream Research Centre, The Jane Goodall Institute Tanzania, Kigoma, Tanzania,3
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138,4
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108,5
The Jane Goodall Institute, Silver Spring, Maryland 209116
Received 11 September 2002/
Accepted 30 October 2002

ABSTRACT
Current knowledge of the genetic diversity of simian immunodeficiency
virus (SIVcpz) infection of wild chimpanzees (
Pan troglodytes)
is incomplete since few isolates, mostly from captive apes from
Cameroon and Gabon, have been characterized; yet this information
is critical for understanding the origins of human immunodeficiency
virus type 1 (HIV-1) and the circumstances leading to the HIV-1
pandemic. Here, we report the first full-length SIVcpz sequence
(TAN1) from a wild chimpanzee (
Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
from Gombe National Park (Tanzania), which was obtained noninvasively
by amplification of virion RNA from fecal samples collected
under field conditions. Using reverse transcription-PCR and
a combination of generic and strain-specific primers, we amplified
13 subgenomic fragments which together spanned the entire TAN1
genome (9,326 bp). Distance and phylogenetic tree analyses identified
TAN1 unambiguously as a member of the HIV-1/SIVcpz group of
viruses but also revealed an extraordinary degree of divergence
from all previously characterized SIVcpz and HIV-1 strains.
In Gag, Pol, and Env proteins, TAN1 differed from west-central
African SIVcpz and HIV-1 strains on average by 36, 30, and 51%
of amino acid sequences, respectively, approaching distance
values typically found for SIVs from different primate species.
The closest relative was SIVcpzANT, also from a
P. t. schweinfurthii ape, which differed by 30, 25, and 44%, respectively, in these
same protein sequences but clustered with TAN1 in all major
coding regions in a statistically highly significant manner.
These data indicate that east African chimpanzees, like those
from west-central Africa, are naturally infected by SIVcpz but
that their viruses comprise a second, divergent SIVcpz lineage
which appears to have evolved in relative isolation for an extended
period of time. Our data also demonstrate that noninvasive molecular
epidemiological studies of SIVcpz in wild chimpanzees are feasible
and that such an approach may prove essential for unraveling
the evolutionary history of SIVcpz/HIV-1 as well as that of
other pathogens naturally infecting wild primate populations.

TEXT
West-central African chimpanzees (
Pan troglodytes troglodytes)
are naturally infected with strains of simian immunodeficiency
virus (SIVcpz) that represent the closest relatives of human
immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) groups M, N, and O and
have thus been implicated as the primate source of the human
infections (
12). East African chimpanzees (
Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
are also infected with SIVcpz, but genetic information for these
viruses is limited since only two such strains (ANT and TAN1)
have so far been identified (
32,
45). The first of these, SIVcpzANT,
was isolated over a decade ago from a wild-caught chimpanzee
orphan (Noah) which was confiscated upon illegal exportation
from Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) (
26). Although
its geographic origin is unknown, this chimpanzee was subsequently
typed as an eastern chimpanzee (
P. t. schweinfurthii) by mitochondrial
DNA analysis (
12). SIVcpzANT was completely sequenced and found
to be most closely related to members of the SIVcpz/HIV-1 group
of viruses; however, phylogenetic analysis revealed that it
formed a highly divergent outgroup to all previously characterized
SIVcpz and HIV-1 strains (
45). The second
P. t. schweinfurthii virus, SIVcpzTAN1, was discovered only recently in a wild chimpanzee
(Ch-06) from Gombe National Park in Tanzania (
32). Using noninvasive
detection methods, we identified SIVcpz-specific antibodies
in urine samples and confirmed SIVcpz infection by amplifying
viral sequences from fecal RNA. Again, sequence analysis indicated
infection with a highly divergent SIVcpz strain (
32); however,
the availability of only partial
pol-
vif sequences precluded
a conclusive phylogenetic analysis. In this paper, we describe
a novel reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) strategy allowing
the amplification of the complete SIVcpzTAN1 sequence from fecal
samples of chimpanzee Ch-06. Analysis of this sequence revealed
new insight into the evolutionary history of the HIV-1/SIVcpz
group of viruses and provided conclusive evidence for the existence
of two divergent SIVcpz lineages infecting chimpanzees in west-central
and east Africa, respectively.
Chimpanzee Ch-06 was a healthy, 24-year-old, sexually active, midranking male member of the Kasekela community, which comprises approximately 55 individuals and is the largest in Gombe National Park. All community members live freely but are habituated to the presence of human observers (14). They are individually known and named and are routinely studied at close distances. Fecal samples were collected from chimpanzee Ch-06 on three independent occasions (9 November 2000, 11 November 2000, and 18 November 2000) under direct observation by field researchers from the Gombe Stream Research Centre. (Fieldwork in Gombe National Park was authorized by the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology, the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, and the Tanzania National Parks.) Approximately 20 g of fecal material was placed into a 50-ml tube containing 20 ml of RNAlater (Ambion, Austin, Tex.). RNAlater preserves nucleic acids, allowing storage and shipment at room temperature without viral RNA degradation. Tubes were sealed with Parafilm, initially stored at -20°C, and then shipped at ambient temperature to the United States by air carrier. Upon arrival, fecal suspensions were aliquoted and stored at -70°C, and RNA was extracted with the RNAqueous-Midi kit (Ambion) according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Briefly, fecal aliquots (1 ml) were resuspended in lysis buffer (6 ml), vortexed, and centrifuged (16,000 x g; 3 min) to remove solid debris. Clarified supernatants were mixed with an equal volume of 64% ethanol and passed through a glass fiber filter unit to bind nucleic acids. Following extensive washes, bound nucleic acids were eluted (1 ml), precipitated with LiCl2 to enrich for RNA and to remove potential PCR inhibitors, pelleted, and resuspended in 50 µl of distilled water. RNA extracts were stored at -70°C.
Previous studies of HIV-1- and SIVcpz-infected chimpanzees as well as HIV-1-infected humans had shown that viral RNA, but not proviral DNA, was detectable in fecal samples, suggesting that viral nucleic acids were present in virions and not in infected cells (32, 46). We thus used an RT-PCR approach with consensus and strain-specific primers to amplify partially overlapping subgenomic (400- to 2,000-bp) viral fragments in a stepwise fashion to derive a complete SIVcpz sequence (Fig. 1). For cDNA synthesis, 10 µl of extracted fecal RNA was added to an RT-PCR master mix consisting of 1x buffer II (Perkin-Elmer, La Jolla, Calif.), 5 mM MgCl2, 1 mM deoxynucleoside triphosphate, 5 mM dithiothreitol, 20 pmol of reverse primer (Table 1), 20 U of RNase inhibitor (Promega, Madison, Wis.), and 100 U of Superscript RT II (Gibco-BRL, Rockville, Md.) and incubated for 1 h at 42°C. Ten microliters of this cDNA preparation was then added to a PCR mix consisting of Expand Buffer 2 (Roche Molecular Biochemicals, Indianapolis, Ind.), 0.35 mM deoxynucleoside triphosphate, 2.25 mM MgCl2, 0.1 µg of bovine serum albumin/ml, 2.5 U of Expand high-fidelity Taq polymerase (Roche Molecular Biochemicals), and 10 pmol of forward and reverse primers (Table 1) and subjected to nested (or seminested) PCR amplifications. Amplification conditions included 45 cycles of denaturation (94°C, 0.5 min), annealing (50°C, 0.5 min), and elongation (68°C, 1.5 min). Two microliters of the first-round reaction mixture was used for second-round amplification under the same thermocycling conditions.
Targeting regions of high sequence conservation, we initially
amplified a 650-bp fragment in the integrase region of
pol and
a 782-bp fragment spanning the
gp41-nef junction (fragments
1 and 2 in Fig.
1). SIVcpzTAN1 strain-specific primers were
then combined with upstream and downstream consensus primers
to obtain sequences 3' and 5' of these anchor fragments (Table
1). Fragments of 1,000 bp or less were readily amplified. However,
attempts to amplify longer fragments were generally unsuccessful,
except for a 2,197-bp envelope fragment which was obtained with
SIVcpzTAN1-specific primers. To obtain the 3' terminus of the
viral genome, we used oligo(dT)
18 for cDNA synthesis, followed
by amplification with consensus primers in the repeat (R) region
of the long terminal repeat (LTR). This yielded a 742-bp fragment
(fragment 12) that included the complete U3 and parts of the
R region of the 3' LTR. Sequences specific for the R region
were then used to design primers to amplify the 5' terminus
(fragment 13). By this strategy, an entire genomic equivalent
of SIVcpzTAN1 was obtained in 13 partially overlapping fragments.
PCR products were visualized by gel electrophoresis, purified
(Qiagen, Valencia, Calif.), and sequenced without interim cloning,
except for fragments 12 and 13, which were cloned into a plasmid
(pTOPO) vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.) to obtain viral
sequences immediately adjacent to the primer sequences. Viral
sequences were assembled with Sequencher software (Gene Codes
Corporation, Ann Arbor, Mich.). None of the directly sequenced
fragments yielded ambiguous bases, suggesting amplification
of viral sequences at limiting dilution conditions. However,
a limited number of nucleotide sequence differences were noted
between adjoining fragments in the region of sequence overlap,
consistent with the presence of SIVcpz as a quasispecies in
fecal samples (
46). In these cases, the 5' sequence was arbitrarily
selected for compilation of the final SIVcpzTAN1 sequence. The
concatenated SIVcpzTAN1 genome (R-U5-
gag-
pol-
env-U3-R) was 9,326
bp in length.
Inspection of deduced protein sequences of SIVcpzTAN1 revealed the expected reading frames for gag, pol, vif, vpr, vpu, tat, rev, env, and nef, none of which contained inactivating mutations. In addition, major regulatory sequences, including promoter and enhancer elements in the LTR, the transactivation region stem-loop structure, the packaging signal, the primer binding site, and major splice sites all appeared to be intact. The deduced TAN1 Vpu amino acid sequence was highly divergent from those of other HIV-1 or SIVcpz Vpu proteins. For example, ANT and TAN1 Vpu proteins were only 37% identical (Fig. 2A). However, the position of the vpu open reading frame in the TAN1 genome (Fig. 1) and the hydrophobicity profile of its deduced protein sequence (Fig. 2B) were very similar to those of other HIV-1 and SIV strains (8, 41). In addition, secondary structure predictions suggested the presence of alpha helices near the C terminus that flanked two highly conserved serine residues (Fig. 2A) previously shown to be critical for HIV-1 Vpu-mediated CD4 degradation (41). Together, these data suggest that TAN1 encodes a functional Vpu protein.
To compare SIVcpzTAN1 to previously characterized SIVcpz and
HIV-1 strains, we performed diversity plot analyses of concatenated
protein sequences. Pairwise sequence distances were plotted
for windows of 300 amino acids, moved in steps of 20 along the
alignment. Figure
3 depicts distance plots illustrating the
proportion of amino acid sequence differences between SIVcpzTAN1
and SIVcpzGAB1 (green solid line), U455 (HIV-1 group M; black
solid line), MVP5180 (HIV-1 group O; blue solid line), and SIVcpzANT
(red solid line), revealing an extent of sequence diversity
between members of the HIV-1/SIVcpz group that is comparable
to that observed for SIVs from pairs of closely related monkey
species (the distances of SIVs from vervet and grivet monkeys,
and from l'hoest and solatus monkeys, are shown for comparison
as red and blue dotted lines, respectively; note that these
viruses differ even less than the various SIVcpz and HIV-1 strains
in the Env protein). The virus most similar to SIVcpzTAN1 was
SIVcpzANT, but even this strain was quite divergent, with distance
values ranging from 17% in Gag to 35% in Env. Phylogenetic analyses
of Gag, Pol, and Env protein sequences confirmed these relationships
(Fig.
4), demonstrating that SIVcpzTAN1 fell within the HIV-1/SIVcpz
radiation and grouped most closely with SIVcpzANT. This phylogenetic
position was consistent in all major coding regions and supported
by significant bootstrap values (Fig.
4). Distance and phylogenetic
analyses thus identified SIVcpzTAN1 as a highly divergent member
of the HIV-1/SIVcpz group of viruses. Since, until now, there
has been only a single divergent
P. t. schweinfurthii strain
from a captive chimpanzee (Noah) of unknown origin, the possibility
existed that SIVcpzANT was the result of a cross-species transmission
event from another primate species and did not really represent
a virus naturally infecting chimpanzees. The derivation of the
complete SIVcpzTAN1 sequence from a chimpanzee of unquestionable
provenance renders this possibility improbable. The phylogenetic
position of TAN1 in Fig.
4 confirms the authenticity of SIVcpzANT
as a bona fide SIVcpz strain and thus provides conclusive evidence
for the existence of two major lineages within the SIVcpz/HIV-1
radiation.
We next inspected SIVcpz and HIV-1 protein alignments for lineage-specific
amino acid sequence insertions and deletions because such features
are excluded from phylogenetic analyses. This analysis identified
several signatures that distinguished ANT and TAN1 from all
other SIVcpz and HIV-1 strains (Fig.
5). For example, both ANT
and TAN1 contained an identical 5-amino-acid insertion (KGPRR)
near the C terminus of Vif which disrupted a highly conserved
PPLP motif previously shown to be critical, in its entirety,
for HIV-1 Vif function (
38). In addition, they exhibited a 5-amino-acid
deletion near the C terminus of Nef that included a diacidic
ß-COP (coatomer protein) binding motif shown elsewhere
to be important for HIV-1 Nef-induced CD4 degradation (
30).
Both ANT and TAN1 also encoded a considerably truncated Vpr
protein that lacked several basic residues at the C terminus
previously shown to be important for HIV-1 Vpr-induced nuclear
localization and G
2 cell cycle arrest, including a critical
Arg-90 residue (
9,
34,
47). Since accessory protein functions
are highly conserved among divergent SIV lineages (
19,
37,
40),
it is highly unlikely that the Vif, Vpr, and Nef proteins of
the two
P. t. schweinfurthii viruses have lost these functions
(this is especially true for TAN1, which was derived without
the in vitro selection that might occur through growth in human
T-cell lines). Instead, the observed Vif, Vpr, and Nef mutations
are likely compensated by amino acid substitutions elsewhere
in these proteins. Finally, both ANT and TAN1 exhibited an amino
acid sequence insertion (8 amino acids for ANT; 9 amino acids
for TAN1) in the ectodomain of the transmembrane envelope glycoprotein
(gp41) which is flanked by two additional cysteine residues
(Fig.
5). Unpaired cysteines are known to interfere with the
proper folding of the SIV and HIV envelope glycoproteins (
22,
42,
44). It is thus likely that the additional cysteine residues
in TAN1 and ANT gp41 form intermolecular disulfide bonds, possibly
resulting in an additional surface loop that might alter the
local gp41 structure. Since this region is also known to be
involved in gp120-gp41 interactions (
5,
33), it is possible
that compensatory changes in the N or C terminus of gp120 have
evolved in association with these mutations. Construction of
a replication-competent TAN1 genome and functional analyses
of its gene products will allow us to examine these possibilities
experimentally. Interestingly, the extra cysteine pair in gp41,
the truncated Vpr, and the Vif insertion were absent not only
from SIVcpz from
P. t. troglodytes but also from all other SIVs,
including the relatively more closely related (at least in
env)
SIVgsn strain (
8). This would suggest that
P. t. schweinfurthii viruses acquired these changes some time after their divergence
from the common SIVcpz ancestor but before the split of the
lineages represented by today's SIVcpzTAN1 and SIVcpzANT. In
addition, the absence of these signatures from all known HIV-1
variants (groups M, N, and O) is consistent with their west-central
African chimpanzee (
P. t. troglodytes) origin.
We previously interpreted the host-specific clustering of
P. t. troglodytes and
P. t. schweinfurthii viruses as indicating
a longstanding virus-host relationship, possibly predating the
divergence of these two chimpanzee subspecies hundreds of thousands
of years ago (
12,
15). Although the phylogenetic position of
SIVcpzTAN1 is consistent with this interpretation, recent molecular
clock calculations using more realistic models of HIV and SIV
sequence evolution suggest a timescale for SIV evolution that
is much shorter than previously assumed (
36). For SIVcpz in
particular, this estimated timescale would certainly not be
on the order of hundreds of thousands or millions of years as
required for virus-host coevolution. Moreover, mitochondrial
DNA studies of wild chimpanzees in west-central Africa suggest
that the two equatorial subspecies are not as distinct as previously
believed (
24), with
P. t. schweinfurthii now being seen to fall
within the
P. t. troglodytes radiation (
10). It is thus possible
that SIVcpz was introduced into chimpanzees relatively more
recently, most likely by cross-species transmission of SIV from
smaller monkeys that serve as a food source for chimpanzees.
The most probable location for such a transmission would be
west-central Africa, since it is there where smaller monkey
species have been determined to harbor related viruses (
8,
13,
39). Once introduced, SIVcpz would have likely spread eastward
to
P. t. schweinfurthii but probably not to the western subspecies
Pan troglodytes verus which is believed to have been geographically
isolated from
P. t. troglodytes and
P. t. schweinfurthii for
an extended period of time (
17,
24). The absence of SIVcpz from
two wild
P. t. verus communities in the Taï forest (
32)
as well as the lack of SIVcpz from over a thousand captive chimpanzees
of west African origin (
31; W. M. Switzer and W. Heneine, personal
communication) strongly supports this conclusion. Thus, the
two major SIVcpz lineages shown here to infect
P. t. troglodytes and
P. t. schweinfurthii subspecies (Fig.
4) most likely reflect
a more recent divergence of SIVcpz within geographically isolated
populations of chimpanzees rather than ancient infection of
chimpanzees and coevolution of virus and host.
The analysis of the complete SIVcpzTAN1 sequence also provides new insight into the origins of HIV-1 groups M, N, and O. First, the significant clustering of SIVcpzTAN1 and SIVcpzANT, their divergence from SIVcpz strains infecting P. t. troglodytes, and the close phylogenetic relationship of P. t. troglodytes viruses to HIV-1 groups M, N, and O (Fig. 4) all reaffirm the conclusion that the HIV-1 epidemic resulted from zoonotic transmission of SIVcpz from west-central African and not east African chimpanzees to humans (12). Second, the discovery of SIVcpzTAN1 and its relationships to the other HIV-1 and SIVcpz strains provides a plausible explanation for the unusual position of HIV-1 group O in phylogenetic trees. Because group O viruses fall as an outgroup to (rather than within) the clade comprised of other HIV-1 groups and SIVcpz from P. t. troglodytes, a west-central African origin of HIV-1 group O has until now seemed less certain (12, 15, 35), even though epidemiologically group O viruses have long been known to be largely restricted to Cameroon and neighboring countries (1, 4, 27). Inspection of the phylogenetic trees in Fig. 4 and comparison of HIV-1 and SIVcpz protein sequence identities in Table 2 now reveal that, overall, HIV-1 group O viruses are no more distant from P. t. troglodytes viruses than the two P. t. schweinfurthii strains are from each other. Together with the known demographic distribution of HIV-1 group O infections, these data argue strongly for a west-central African chimpanzee origin of HIV-1 group O. It may then seem surprising that all known west-central African SIVcpz strains cluster together with HIV-1 groups M and N in a single clade, with no SIVcpz being closely related to HIV-1 group O. This may be due to the fact that all known P. t. troglodytes viruses, with the possible exception of SIVcpzUS, whose geographic origin is unknown, were derived from chimpanzees captured in southern Cameroon or northern Gabon in a region south of the Sanaga River and north of the Ogooué River (7, 28). Since HIV-1 groups M and N fall within the radiation of these chimpanzee viruses, it is likely that the cross-species transmission events giving rise to these HIV-1 groups took place in the same vicinity. The SIVcpz predecessor of HIV-1 group O would then be expected to have come from a different geographic region, yet still within west-central Africa. An intriguing possibility is that HIV-1 group O originated in the fourth (Nigerian) subspecies of chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes vellerosus, whose natural habitat includes eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon with the Sanaga River delineating its southern boundary (6, 10). Evidence of rare chimpanzee gene flow across the Sanaga River has been reported elsewhere (10), offering the possibility that SIVcpz could have spread from P. t. troglodytes to P. t. vellerosus in the past. Naturally infected P. t. vellerosus apes have not yet been identified, but only very few have been tested. Comprehensive screening of these chimpanzees and others throughout west-central Africa for SIVcpz infection is needed to test this hypothesis.
The documentation of SIVcpzTAN1 in Gombe extends the geographic
range of SIVcpz from Gabon and Cameroon across equatorial Africa
to Tanzania. Although additional field studies throughout west-central
and east Africa will be required to understand fully the geographic
distribution and prevalence of SIVcpz in
P. t. troglodytes and
P. t. schweinfurthii, the present results make it most likely
that both of these subspecies are endemically infected. We considered
the possibility that Ch-06 could have been infected by HIV-1
from an infected human, or by SIV from another primate species,
but found both scenarios implausible. First, none of the Gombe
chimpanzees has ever been held captive, relocated from a different
part of Africa, or inoculated with human blood; even had they
been exposed to blood or bodily secretions from an infected
human, there are no known HIV-1 strains that are at all closely
related to SIVcpzTAN1 (Fig.
4). Second, among over 30 African
primate species known to harbor SIV, none have been found to
carry viruses that are sufficiently closely related to SIVcpz
to represent a viable direct source (
15,
25). Third, to explain
an infection of Ch-06 by an SIV from another primate species
would require, on phylogenetic grounds, the same as yet unidentified
primate reservoir to have transmitted similar viruses to both
chimpanzees and humans on as many as 10 different occasions.
Such a hypothetical primate species, whose habitat would also
need to overlap the range of both
P. t. troglodytes and
P. t. schweinfurthii, is unlikely given the results of the rather
extensive surveys of primates for HIV-1-related infections that
have already been conducted (
2,
25). Thus, human-to-chimpanzee
transmission of an SIVcpz-like virus cannot be invoked to explain
the existence of SIVcpzTAN1, and an additional concurrent primate
reservoir is highly improbable.
There remain a number of questions regarding the prevalence, subspecies distribution, and evolutionary history of SIVcpz in chimpanzees. Although six additional SIVcpz-infected chimpanzees have recently been identified in Gombe National Park (M. L Santiago and B. H. Hahn, unpublished data), other communities in east Africa appear to be free of infection, indicating, overall, a surprisingly low prevalence of SIVcpz in east African chimpanzees. Moreover, even within an infected community like Kasekela, spread of SIVcpz from the single index case has not yet been documented (Santiago and Hahn, unpublished). This is in stark contrast to SIV infection of smaller primate species, where prevalence increases with age in wild troops and up to 90% of sexually active adults become infected (3, 25, 29). Additional field studies of wild-living chimpanzees are clearly needed to shed light on these and other issues. It is possible that studies of SIVcpz infection in wild chimpanzee communities will help explain not only the pathogenicity of HIV-1 in humans but also its current transmission rates, which have led to the AIDS pandemic. In a practical sense, the present study demonstrates that full-length SIVcpz sequences can be derived noninvasively and that blood sampling is not required to conduct comprehensive molecular epidemiological studies of primate lentiviruses in endangered species. Moreover, it has been shown that this noninvasive approach is applicable to other viral infections and primate populations (23). This should provide new opportunities for primatologists, conservationists, and biomedical scientists to combine their research efforts to study medically important pathogens and emerging infectious diseases.
Nucleotide sequence accession number.
The GenBank accession number for the concatenated SIVcpzTAN1 genome sequence (R-U5-gag-pol-env-U3-R) is AF447763.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank John Moore, Michael Malim, Didier Trono, and Michael
Emerman for helpful discussions; the staff at Gombe Stream Research
Centre for collecting chimpanzee fecal samples; Julie Decker
and Maria Salazar for technical assistance; and W. J. Abbott
for artwork and manuscript preparation.
This work was supported in part by grants NO1 AI 85338, RO1 AI 44596, and RO1 AI 50529 (B.H.H. and P.M.S.); the UAB Center for AIDS Research Sequencing Core (P30 AI 27767); the Leakey Foundation and the National Science Foundation (M.N.M. and R.W.W.); the Jane Goodall Institute (S.K., A.E.P., and D.A.C.); and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (G.M.S.).

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 720 20th St. South, Kaul 816, Birmingham, AL 35294. Phone: (205) 934-0412. Fax: (205) 934-1580. E-mail:
bhahn{at}uab.edu.


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Journal of Virology, February 2003, p. 2233-2242, Vol. 77, No. 3
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.3.2233-2242.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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